Practical Tips for Productive Living

12 Things My Grandmother Told Me Before She Died

When my grandmother, Zelda, passed away a few years ago at the age of 90, she left me with a box of miscellaneous items from her house that she knew I had grown to appreciate over the years. Among these items is an old leather-bound journal that she aptly named her Inspiration Journal.

Throughout the second half of her life, she used this journal to jot down ideas, thoughts, quotes, song lyrics, and anything else that moved her. She would read excerpts from her journal to me when I was growing up, and I would listen and ask questions. I honestly credit a part of who I am now to the wisdom she bestowed on me when I was young.

Today I want to share some of these inspiring excerpts with you. I’ve done my best to sort, copyedit, and reorganize the content into twelve inspiring bullet points. Enjoy.

Breathe in the future, breathe out the past. No matter where you are or what you’re going through, always believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Never expect, assume, or demand. Just do your best, control the elements you can control, and then let it be. Because once you have done what you can, if it is meant to be, it will happen, or it will show you the next step that needs to be taken.

Life CAN be simple again. Just choose to focus on one thing at a time. You don’t have to do it all, and you don’t have to do it all right now. Breathe, be present, and do your best with what’s in front of you. What you put into life, life will eventually give you back many times over. Read The Power of Now.

Let others take you as you are, or not at all. Speak your truth even if your voice shakes. By being yourself, you put something beautiful into the world that was not there before. So walk your path confidently and don’t expect anyone else to understand your journey, especially if they have not been exactly where you are going.

You are not who you used to be, and that’s OK. You’ve been hurt; you’ve gone through numerous ups and downs that have made you who you are today. Over the years, so many things have happened – things that have changed your perspective, taught you lessons, and forced your spirit to grow. As time passes, nobody stays the same, but some people will still tell you that you have changed. Respond to them by saying, “Of course I’ve changed. That’s what life is all about. But I’m still the same person, just a little stronger now than I ever was before.”

Everything that happens helps you grow, even if it’s hard to see right now. Circumstances will direct you, correct you, and perfect you over time. So whatever you do, hold on to hope. The tiniest thread will twist into an unbreakable cord. Let hope anchor you in the possibility that this is not the end of your story – that the change in the tides will eventually bring you to peaceful shores.

Do not educate yourself to be rich, educate yourself to be happy. That way when you get older you’ll know the value of things, not the price. In the end, you will come to realize that the best days are the days when you don’t need anything extreme or special to happen to make you smile. You simply appreciate the moments and feel gratitude, seeking nothing else, nothing more. That is what true happiness is all about. Read Happiness Is a Serious Problem.

Be determined to be positive. Understand that the greater part of your misery or unhappiness is determined not by your circumstances, but by your attitude. So smile at those who often try to begrudge or hurt you, show them what’s missing in their life and what they can’t take away from you.

Pay close attention to those you care about. Sometimes when a loved one says, “I’m okay,” they need you to look them in the eyes, hug them tight, and reply, “I know you’re not.” And don’t be too upset if some people only seem to remember you when they need you. Feel privileged that you are like a beacon of light that comes to their minds when there is darkness in their lives.

Sometimes you have to let a person go so they can grow. Because, over the course of their lives, it is not what you do for them, but what you have taught them to do for themselves that will make them a successful human being.

Sometimes getting the results you crave means stripping yourself of people that don’t serve your best interests. This allows you to make space for those who support you in being the absolute best version of yourself. It happens gradually as you grow. You find out who you are and what you want, and then you realize that people you’ve known forever don’t see things the way you do. So you keep the wonderful memories, but find yourself moving on.

It’s better to look back on life and say, “I can’t believe I did that,” than to look back and say, “I wish I did that.” In the end, people will judge you in some way anyway. So don’t live your life trying to impress others. Instead live your life impressing yourself. Love yourself enough to never lower your standards for anyone. Read The Last Lecture.

If you’re looking for a happy ending and can’t seem to find one, maybe it’s time to start looking for a new beginning. Brush yourself off and accept that you have to fail from time to time. That’s how you learn. The strongest people out there – the ones who laugh the hardest with a genuine smile – are the same people who have fought the toughest battles. They’re smiling because they’ve decided that they’re not going to let anything hold them down, they’re moving on to a new beginning.

Your Vision of the future lies from within Gray Lawrence

“The Power of Listening is available to us all, only those who listen will gain great benefits in life, love personal & financial wealth. The decision is yours” – Gray Lawrence

To find what you seek in the road of life, the best proverb of all is that which says: Leave no stone unturned." Edward Bulwer Lytton

The Personal Poem

We all need someone & something, look within yourself are you that person?

To laugh is to risk appearing a foolTo weep is to risk appearing sentimentalTo reach out to another is to risk involvementTo expose your feelings is to risk rejectionTo place your dreams before a crowd is to risk ridiculeTo love is to risk not being loved in returnTo go forward is to face the overwhelming odds is to risk failureRisks must be taken because the greatest risk of all is to risk nothingThe person who risks nothing does nothing has nothing and is nothingHe may avoid suffering and Sorrow but he cannot learn and cannot feel, cannot change, cannot grow and cannot laughChained by his virtues he is a slave A person who risks is truly FREE

Champions aren’t made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them – a desire, a dream, a vision. Muhammad Ali

Gray Lawrence

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." Nido Qubein

You’re familiar with the situation: You’ve just finished celebrating a wonderful holiday season, you’ve spent precious time with friends and loved ones, and you’ve laid out your goals for the upcoming year. Everything goes according to plan in January, but once mid-February hits, you lose your focus, you begin slumping back into old habits, and before you know it, all that motivation you had on New Years Day is nothing more than a distant memory.

Truth be told, it’s not difficult to be motivated at the beginning of a new year, but it is a challenge to stay motivated throughout the year. However, there are select individuals that manage to maintain their motivation throughout the year and accomplish amazing feats in their lives. So, at the beginning of a new year (2016), we’ve decided to let you in on 5 secrets that motivated people use to stay on track with their goals through New Years and beyond. Pay close attention if you want to make this year your most successful year yet!

#1: Plan for Bumps in the Road

If you make a plan without anticipating bumps in the road, then you’re just setting yourself up for failure down the road. If you truly want to keep your motivation level high throughout the year, you need to write out a list of “if” “then” statements that can be used when something negative happens in your life. For example, if the weather is poor for a week and you can’t ride your bike outside like you’ve planned, come up with an alternative option using “if” “then” statements. If you do this you’ll still stay on track to your goals and you won’t slip into the danger zone of giving up altogether. If you plan for the road bumps, you’ll be better prepared to overcome them and move forward with your goals.

#2: Use Positive Affirmations and Self-Talk

Research has proven over and over again that people that truly believe they can accomplish their goals are significantly more likely to achieve them compared to those who don’t. One great way to keep your motivation and confidence high is to speak positive affirmations out loud each day. You don’t have to use the same affirmations every day, but they do need to be positive. Speak about your talents, your motivation, and how you will never give up. As you stick to this habit of speaking positive affirmations and engaging in positive self-talk, you will notice that your motivation will stay high as a result.

#3: Be Public About Your Goals

There is nothing wrong with having private goals, but sometimes it helps if you make your goals public. Going public with your goals will make you accountable to others, instead of just to yourself. If you want to lose weight for example, announce on Facebook that you are planning to lose x amount of pounds by the end of the year. Keep people up to date on your progress by creating a blog or posting periodically on social media. Doing this will keep you motivated, because not only will you continually be reminding yourself of your goal, but you also won’t want to disappoint everyone else.

#4: Be Realistic About Your Goals

If you make your goals too ambitious, you are setting yourself up for failure. The key to achieving goals is to make progress. This year you may start out with a few smaller goals, but then you may move on to a loftier goal next year. If you try to do everything at once however, you’ll only make it harder on yourself when you don’t meet your own expectations. The easiest way to avoid that is to be reasonable with your goals. Sit down and evaluate where you are currently at in your life, and what changes you can reasonably expect to make in the next year. Then outline the goals you’d like to achieve years down the road and make a plan to get there. When you make reasonable goals it will help you stay motivated throughout the year.

#5: Have a Support Network in Place

For this one, begin by creating a list of all the people in your life who support you the most. Your list can include friends, family, romantic partners, colleagues, and mentors. Make sure you choose individuals who know how badly you want to achieve your goals, and also who have seen you fail to achieve some goals in the past. If you choose people that have been with you through thick and thin, you will be more likely to stay motivated because they will know what to say to help you get through the tough times.

Today I am making a small effort to offer the following and as usual the story is not changed only PMA added, enjoy.

"One of the most powerful tools we can use to activate the Law of Attraction in our life is to practice appreciation of what we already have and everything around us." Frank Mangano

Believe in yourself and your abilities. That is the only way to attract wonderful things into your life. Don’t waste your time thinking that you cannot do something. Dr. Steve & Frank

Rediscovering Your Love of You

Acceptance, Identity, Respect, Self Love

If I could share 500 words to inspire, this is the important wisdom I’d want to pass along to others…

We need to make self-love a lifestyle, not just a practice! I truly believe that the root cause of the majority of the challenges and problems that we as humans face is a lack of self-love, self-worth and self-respect. This is the true epidemic that we face at this time in our evolution.

The funny thing is, though: we are all born with the natural ability to love, respect and value ourselves. It is not something we need to learn how to do as we grow up – for the most of us it is something we just need to remember. If you don’t believe me, go spend some time with a 2 year old. They will show you how easy it is to love and value ourselves.

For me, one of my greatest teachers is my niece Willow, who is almost 3 years old now. She has no issue at all with saying “I love you” to herself in the mirror or blowing herself kisses. She doesn’t stop herself from saying or doing anything because she is worried about how others may think or react. It is not in her consciousness to worry about judgment from others… yet.

If we are all born with the natural ability to love, respect and value ourselves, how do we lose it? From the first moment that we hear the words “no”, “you are wrong”, or “this is the way you have to do it”, we begin to question our own ability to think and feel for ourselves. We begin to give our power away to others in our lives, whether it is parents, siblings, friends, teachers – anyone who is in a role of authority or “knows better”.

We are taught from a young age to put the opinions of others above our own. As we grow older, the cycle continues until we get to be a teenager. At this point we begin to carve out our own identity and wonder who we truly are. We experiment with many forms of expressing ourselves, BUT, for the most part we look to other people or our accomplishments to validate what we say and do. We try to take our power back by looking to the very people that stripped it away from us in the first place.

For me, I was on this path until I was 19 years old. I had lost the majority of my self-esteem and self-worth at a young age – because I was labelled as “different” and “spirited” – so I never truly felt understood and accepted. In order to love ourselves fully, we need to feel understood and accepted.

It wasn’t until I had a complete breakdown that I realized that I was never going to get what I was truly looking for from anyone else but MYSELF! I realized that in order to feel accepted, loved and valued, that I needed to remember how to love, value and respect myself – and when I did that I would no longer rely on it coming from anyone or anything.

This is what we need to be teaching our kids from the moment they are born. Instead of looking to others in our lives to validate the feelings we have inside, we need to empower them to fill their own cups up from within. We need to stop stripping them of the very essence that they NEED the most to thrive in this world and instead show them the greatest gift of all is the ability to love ourselves, no matter what!

“Always give more than you hope to receive, whether in business or in your personal life.” – Dave Taylor

The Power is from within, the choice is yours Gray LawrenceIndependent Distributor

"Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." Nido Qubein

How to Live a Passion Driven Life

The person that does not carry his desires into action is only a dreamer. Desire is a great creative force, if it is pure, intense and sustained.

You are constantly creating your life, we all are. We create our lives out of the things to which we give our attention, and you attract into your life more of what you put attention on.

If your attention is on the things you don’t have, all the problems in your life, all the bad things that are happening to you, then you are creating more of that.

If you want more problems, more challenges, more unhappiness, then give attention to those things. If you want to “Find your Purpose and Your Passion” in life. Then live for what drives you then give your attention to the things that create those feelings.

It is a big mistake to let a thought rule you, instead of ruling it. He who does not rule himself is not a success. If you cannot control your concentration, your health will suffer.

When you discover your deepest passions, you connect with the essence of who you are. The key to success in life is to live aligned with your passions and your personal destiny will unfold naturally and effortlessly.

When that happens, life becomes an expanding field of joy, happiness, and fulfilment, along with all the same inconveniences, challenges, obstacles, and discomforts everyone experiences. The difference is, on the path of a passion driven life, those things just don’t have much significance.

Finding The Key to Success in Life

Out of fear, people focus on what they don’t want. They’re afraid they won’t have enough money or they’ll get sick or there will be a disaster. One of our favourite sayings is, “Fear is vividly imagining exactly what you don’t want to happen, happening.”

Focusing on what you don’t want is a habit. Whenever you notice that you are focusing on something in a negative way, just say “cancel” and replace that thought with something you choose to create. This is the key to success in life and of course living it with a great passion.

Most people don’t realize how much passion they put into what they don’t want. When you speak to a friend and you tell them all about an "awful" situation, you are putting passion into what you don’t want. When you react to an event negatively, with the response that it is "terrible", you are putting passion into what you don’t want. You are a beautiful passionate being, so make sure you direct your passion wisely. May the joy be with you,

Rhonda Byrne The Secret… bringing joy to billions

Living Life With Passion: Find Your Purpose

Let’s try it right now. Close your eyes and imagine something you fear could happen to you. As soon as it appears say, “cancel” and shift your attention to the opposite. Isn’t that just as likely? You can shift your life just that easily.

Because of neural pathways, these fearful thoughts may continue to come up for a while. Just keep cancelling those thoughts and replacing them with their opposites. With a little time new neural pathways will be created and your experience will change.

What will you put your attention on now? What will the best and most amazing experience of your life look like? By now, we hope you understand that you have the power to craft that experience.

You are creating your life and your world in every moment. Want to see how powerful you are? Look at your life.

Creating a Passion To Drive You Life

It’s not action that creates the desired result (even though it may appear that way). It is your intention directed through the process of attention that creates the result. You can see this is true because in almost every case the way in which a result happens is different from the plan of action created for achieving that result.

It is just as easy to surround your life with what you want, as it is with what you don’t want. It is a question to be decided by your will.

Your life today is the result of the predominant thoughts you have held up until now. If you want your life to change, change your mind. It doesn’t have to take a long time to do so and live a passion driven life.

Are You Fulfilling Your Life’s Purpose?

Living life with passion has the power to transform your life into one full of love, happiness and meaning. Find your purpose and discover how you can use your passion for inspiring and empowering others to become an entrepreneur who ACTUALLY makes a difference in the world around you! Especially Your family and living a fulfilled passionate life.

When you exist in the great state of gratitude, you become a person who only wants to give. You become so grateful that it takes over your life, and you can’t find enough opportunities in a day to give. You give joy, you give love, you give money, you give appreciation, you give compliments, and you give kindness. You give the best of yourself in your job, in your relationships, and to strangers.

You will know when you have really found true gratitude, because you will become a giver. One who is truly grateful cannot be anything else. May the joy be with you, Rhonda Byrne